Letters to the Editor for Saturday, September 12, 2009

Writer: Slow down health reform efforts
It seems to me that I probably should let the unsubstantiated and sophomoric comments in Lawrence H. Symonds’ Sept. 1 letter pass on as not worthy of more time and comment. On the other hand, I hope any unwarranted attention can be offset by some constructive and corrective remarks.

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The Obama administration and its supporters are advocating more control of health care level of services — and that is an example of socialized medicine that the letter writer denies. Proponents continue to present questionable, incomplete, inadequate, piecemeal, plans and explanations.

Another major aspect of this health care matter under discussion and debate involves the need for a more reasonable acknowledgement, assessment and conjecture of the potential impact of placing a so-called government insurance option in the marketplace. It is easy for many to see that a government option in the marketplace would cause radical changes of what will be available, at what price — and that makes the contention by proponents that people can still keep their current health care plans is a disingenuous statement.

The way that President Barack Obama and his supporters have proposed, presented, administered and managed this health care bill — which represents 15 percent of our country’s economy — has been disappointing and misleading. It is time for the president and Congress to stop their current health care reform efforts. They need to pause, reassess and start over with clearer information and justifications.
CHARLIE CROWDER
Forest

‘Groundbreaking’ study
The News & Advance’s Sept. 8 editorial, “Cracking the Charlottesville Bottleneck,” decries the groundbreaking Places29 strategy as a “self-centered” plan that “serves only the perceived needs of a privileged few in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.” It suggests instead that a Charlottesville bypass should be revived, claiming that $50 million worth of studies show it’s the best answer to moving traffic through the area.

To the contrary, VDOT predicted in 2000 that much of U.S. 29 through the Charlottesville area will be an “F” level of service — gridlock — even with a bypass. Bad news for local drivers. But in addition, even back then the bypass was already obsolete because of development north of where it would tie back in to Route 29. In other words, the bypass was not a “bypass” at all. Bad news for through-traffic.

In an era of extremely scarce transportation funding, the Charlottesville area should be applauded for abandoning this ineffective and outdated idea, and focusing instead on more cost-effective solutions that improve both regional and local traffic, such as:

* Building a more complete network of smaller, linked roads to give local drivers more options for reaching destinations along Route 29, freeing up capacity on the main highway for through travelers; and

* Replacing the most congested intersections with grade-separated interchanges so that regional traffic doesn’t get stuck at long traffic lights waiting for local drivers to cross U.S. 29.

Recent transportation studies show that expected growth could more than triple current travel times through Charlottesville and Albemarle’s portion of U.S. 29 by 2025. In contrast, the Places29 strategy would hold the current travel times steady, even with the expected growth. Places29 is not an example, as your editorial suggests, of Charlottesville and Albemarle County looking inward instead of outward, but rather of looking forward, not backward, for solutions.
MORGAN BUTLER
Director, Charlottesville/Albemarle Project
Southern Environmental Law Center